German prosecutors investigate bonus payments to former VW manager

German prosecutors are probing a possible breach of fiduciary duty by Volkswagen regarding bonus payments made to an executive who was suspended following automaker’s emissions cheating scandal.

German automaker was caught using software made for evading emissions tests on diesel engines.

Volkswagen has argued the software was the work of a handful of engineers who acted without the consent or knowledge of members of the management board, which at the time consisted of VW’s current CEO Herbert Diess and chairman Hans-Dieter Poetsch.

Prosecutors in Braunschweig, in automaker’s home region of Lower Saxony, stated on Tuesday they were now probing why one VW manager got bonus payments when he was suspended. According to German paper Bild am Sonntag, the manager got 866,000 euros ($964,866) in bonuses between 2016 and 2018.

The prosecutors refused to identify the manager. VW refused to comment on the payments.

The manager is one of the five VW executives, including former CEO Martin Winterkorn, to face criminal charges for conspiring to cover up the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal.

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